Australian minister warns against downloading DeepSeek

Australia's Minister for Industry and Science has raised security concerns about the Chinese app DeepSeek that is causing a stir in the global tech and financial world.

The DeepSeek R1 artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot application developed by Chinese startup DeepSeek is surprising the technology world because it has the same capabilities as ChatGPT despite being created at low cost and based on chip models that are not the most advanced.

The breakthrough sent Wall Street reeling and wiped out nearly $1 trillion in value from US tech giants on January 27.

DeepSeek app logo developed by Chinese company

However, in a media interview on January 28, Australian Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic urged users to be cautious with Chinese applications.

"There are a lot of questions that need to be answered in a timely manner about quality, consumer preferences, data management and privacy," Mr Husic told ABC. "I would be very careful about that. These types of issues need to be carefully considered," Mr Husic added.

Chinese companies sometimes differ from Western companies on data management and user privacy, Mr. Husic said.

“The Chinese are very good at developing products that work very well. That market is standardized in their approach to data and privacy. But when you export them to markets where consumers have different expectations around data management and privacy, the question is whether those products will be accepted in the same way,” said Husic, who said he would be very careful about downloading the DeepSeek app.

Asked if he had concerns about Australians using DeepSeek, Mr Husic said he expected similar discussions about DeepSeek as there were about TikTok. "I wouldn't be surprised if that came up... I don't have TikTok on government phones. I think these issues need to be carefully considered," the Australian minister urged.

In 2018, Australia banned Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from building its 5G network infrastructure on national security grounds.

DeepSeek R1 has surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the US App Store. Shares of Nvidia, the AI ​​chip maker, fell 17% after news of DeepSeek R1's capabilities were released.

US President Donald Trump said the rise of DeepSeek should be a wake-up call for US tech companies to compete to win. President Trump said it was a positive thing that China was coming up with AI solutions faster and much cheaper, and affirmed that the US would find a similar way.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bo-truong-uc-canh-bao-ve-viec-tai-deepseek-185250128154850955.htm